Pat and Susan Smith keep a getaway car. Actually, it's more like a truck, a
four-wheel-drive Suburban ready and waiting in the garage, with the 40-gallon tank filled
with gasoline, just in case. Since the big attacks in September and the wave of
FBI-issued terror alerts that have followed, the Smiths have been planning escape
routes.

"Everything has changed," says Susan, 39, from her home near the Pentagon. "We don't
feel secure anymore."

The White House statement in Time this week—that the U.S. remains vulnerable to an
attack possibly deadlier than anything we've seen before—will do nothing to soothe a
public expecting the worst. Down in the garage, next to 20 gallons of bottled water, the
Smiths now keep a box of supplies. Inside: canned green beans, corn, and carrots; a
manual can opener; crackers; first aid bandages and antibiotic ointment; iodine pills to
ward off the effects of nuclear radiation; and a pocket knife for hunting. "There are
people out there that hate Americans," she says. "They want to kill us, and for no
reason."

Susan and those like her suffer from Acute Prolonged Stress Syndrome, according to Dr.
Rona Fields, a Washington, D.C., psychologist who specializes in trauma and terrorism.
The cause is uncertainty. A feeling of helplessness. Inability to control the future. The
resulting symptoms of fear and anxiety are more common these days, according to Dr.
Fields, who attributes them in large part to the constant, occasionally confusing terror
alerts issued by the FBI.

The threats are credible, but not specific, say the feds. And the warnings are serious,
yet seemingly futile. Stimulus, with no response. Every time John Ashcroft rings the
terror bell, Fields says, more patients find their way into her office, and the mental
health of the nation suffers.

"It's a vicious cycle," she says. "We're put on a state of alert, like we're given an electric
shock, but we're not given any way to reduce the pain."

The FBI, so far, has issued a lot of shocks. Since September 11, there have been, count
'em, 43 terrorism alerts, according to the Bureau. Some have shaken more nerves than
others. In December, Ashcroft told the country to be on "high alert" until early March,
after the Olympics. But before the closing ceremonies, the FBI called for "the highest
state of alert," reminding citizens to be vigilant and releasing 13 fuzzy photos of men
with dark skin and long last names. After so many vague alerts, many based on
uncorroborated evidence, it's fair to ask, What's the point? Why spook a country that's
already spooked?

The FBI press office says agents acquire the information, analyze it, then huddle with
other branches of government like the CIA and the Office of Homeland Security to
decide if it should be made public. That's all. "We're not trying to instill fear," says a
spokesperson. "Terrorism is a reality; that's the fear."

For those on the woolly left, however, and a few academics and Washington insiders,
there's another force driving homeland security: politics. "It's second nature for any
system of power to try and inspire fear," Noam Chomsky, the noted linguist and author
of 9-11, tells the Voice. "Bush's managers realize they only have one card to play. Would
you direct him to focus the attention of the population on tax cuts or other gifts for the
rich? Or on the Enron scandal, or the deliberate destruction of a decent environment for
our grandchildren? Or would it be preferable to construct the image of a noble hero
driving evil from the world while the population huddles in fear of monsters from whom
our dauntless savior will rescue us? No choice."

Bush shows no sign of taking his foot off the nation's—and the world's—adrenal glands.
In February, the Pentagon extended its $100,000-a-month contract with the Rendon
Group, a global PR firm hired on a no-bid basis to fight the psychological war abroad.
Details are classified, but in the past, the company has provided focus groups, Web
sites, news leads for foreign reporters, and government contacts for an exclusive,
international client list that includes the CIA, Monsanto, and the trade agencies of
Bulgaria, Uzbekistan, and Russia.

During the Gulf War, Rendon furnished Kuwaiti citizens with American flags, and also
boosted the CIA's effort to oust Saddam Hussein from power, producing videos, radio
skits mocking Hussein, and a traveling photo exhibit. The campaign urged Iraqi officers to
defect, according to PR Watch, a Washington nonprofit. Rendon also worked closely with
the Iraqi National Congress—they even crafted the anti-Hussein group's name—and
according to a 1998 ABC News report, channeled it over $12 million in covert CIA aid
during Clinton's tenure.

Rendon is only one arm of the current administration's psychological war on terrorism.
Another PR campaign, headed by Charlotte Beers, the former Madison Avenue CEO
turned State Department undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, aims to
produce pro-American television shows, featuring celebrities and sports stars, with
"emotional messages." Her office "is a vital new arm that will combat terrorism over
time," she told Advertising Age.

In the Arab world, however, media critics aren't convinced the ad campaign will stick.
"The United States lost the public relations war in the Middle East a long time ago," says
Osama Siblani, publisher of the Arab American News. "They could have the Prophet
Muhammad doing public relations and it wouldn't help."

Closer to home, an omnipresent enemy and a climate of fear have always served to unite
fractured societies and reinvent politicians' mandate for power.

"These terror alerts are just another way for us all to come together—in an albeit
superficial way, and reaffirm our moral ties to each other," says Dalton Conley, a
sociology professor at NYU. "We are all closer together because we are not like the Axis
of Evil. It's public unity, an act of moral cohesion, but for a political end."

This phenomenon may explain why Shrub, a year after squeaking into the White House
on a few hanging chads, is now being considered next to Abe Lincoln and John F.
Kennedy as the greatest American president, according to an ABC News poll. His rise is
fueled in part by a nation's fear, but he'll have to keep pumping out warnings in order for
them to work. "Think of each alert like sex, just the morning after," Conley says. "The
afterglow is nice for awhile, but it quickly disappoints.

The Bush administration likes to brand the fight against terrorism as a new kind of war,
with new enemies and new rules, but using fear to push policy has been an actual play
in the White House book since the Truman administration began commissioning behavioral
studies on "emotion management" during the early days of Cold War hysteria.

In 1948, Truman oversaw a secret and unusual study, Project East River, which looked
into ways of using paranoia to control behavior. The results, according to political
scientist Andrew Grossman, who uncovered reams of information for his book, Neither
Dead nor Red, were simple.

"Fear is good, panic is bad," Grossman says. "The Project found that fear could be
used—channeled—to mobilize the people and push Cold War policy. With panic, however,
they figured the shoe might fall off."

To prevent hysteria, the Project suggested calibrating the unease of the public by
performing "ritualized training behavior," or civil defense. This meant duck-and-cover
drills, bomb-shelter preparation, and asking citizens to keep a careful watch on others.
Such measures gave people a sense of control over their fate, just as Pat and Susan
Smith's getaway Suburban helps them believe the effects of doomsday catastrophe can
at least be outrun.

Just as the Bush administration signed up with the Rendon Group—and briefly floated the
idea of a media-twisting Office of Strategic Influence—Truman's Civil Defense
Administration kept its own PR team. Between 1952 and 1958, the agency produced over
250 million pieces of literature, like flyers, pocket guides, and training manuals. The basic
message: Through civic vigilance comes nuclear salvation. The office also hit the road to
sell civil defense with a traveling circus called Alert America. With three motorized
convoys—each boasting 10 specially painted 32-foot trailers—Alert America could travel
into 82 cities in a year and reach over a million citizens. "SEE THE INSIDE STORY OF
ATOMIC WAR," howls one of the Truman posters, above a cute picture of a nuclear
mushroom cloud.

The problem, however, isn't the propaganda messages hidden within these freaky relics
of the Cold War, but in emergency planning between federal and state agencies. In
Truman's day, local agencies began to develop their own civil defense corps. Soon the
federal and state policies overlapped, and bureaucracy grew bloated. With friction
between agencies, the effectiveness of emergency response systems suffered.

Under Bush, local police have already begun complaining the FBI alerts make their jobs
tougher. The means in place for public warnings are patchwork, at best. In late
February, to combat the confusion, homeland security director Tom Ridge announced the
development of a new terrorism alert system. Ridge gave few specifics, but
public-warning experts say a four-step program is under consideration, and alerts will be
labeled with vocabulary the public can easily understand: Critical, Serious, Alert, Ready.
The catch, according to Ridge, is that each state's governor must sign off on the plan,
or the scheme won't work.

But in the minds of citizens, the long-term effects of numerous alerts, stacked on top of
each other, will be either mass anxiety or mental inoculation. "If the FBI's game is
stimulus-response, they haven't followed through with the reward," says Dr. Fields.
"There could be serious psychiatric consequences."

She brings up the example of lab mice. If given an electric shock, the animals will do
anything to reduce the pain. That's how they learn, just classic conditioning. But if the
mice are given no way to stop the shock—just as a citizen can do nothing to prevent a
terrorist attack with the FBI's information—the critters go crazy.

The Smiths' oldest son started sleepwalking after September 11, and the family turned
to Fields for help. They couldn't eliminate the threat of terror, she told them, but they
could calm their panicky nerves. Take precautions, she advised. Do something, anything,
besides panic. Be vigilant. Be prepared.

Susan, at first, could not sleep. The sound of fighter jets floating over the Capitol made
her tense. Now she finds the sound of the roaring engines soothing. "You can say
George Bush is taking this too far," she says. "I don't think so. He has a purpose. He
really has a plan. And it doesn't hurt to become aware of the fact that there's evil out
there. And that evil is targeted at America. Don't let the anxiety take over. Empower
yourself!"

Answers

Unveiling a color-coded terrorism warning system, domestic security
chief Tom Ridge said Tuesday the nation is on yellow alert —
facing a
"significant risk" of danger but not the highest stage.

The five-level system is a response to
public
complaints that broad terror alerts issued
by
the government since the Sept. 11 attacks
raised alarm without providing useful
guidance.

The lowest-status warning is green,
followed
by blue, yellow, orange and red as the
perceived dangers intensify.

Ridge said he hopes America is some day on
the lowest level of alert, "but I certainly
think
it's years away." He said the United States
faces the "permanent possibility" of
terrorist
attack.

In a series of public events, Ridge outlined the stages of
alert and how
government agencies should respond:

_Green is a low risk of terrorist attack.

_Blue is a general risk, and agencies are asked to review and
update
emergency response procedures.

_Yellow is an "elevated condition," meaning there is a
significant risk of
attack. Increased surveillance of critical locations and
implementing
some emergency response plans are called for.

_Orange signifies a high risk of attack, meaning the
government should
coordinate necessary security efforts with armed forces or law
enforcement agencies and take additional precautions at public
events.

_Red means a "severe risk" of attack and may require the
pre-positioning of especially trained teams, closing public
and
government facilities and monitoring transportation systems.

America is at yellow alert because the al-Qaida terrorist
network is
trying to re-form after defeats in Afghanistan (news - web
sites) and has
trained thousands of terrorists, some of whom have likely
slipped into
the United States, Ridge said.

Hundreds of local police agencies were being notified Tuesday
of the
yellow alert as well as what the color-coded system entails.
The
government has issued four ill-defined warnings since Sept.
11.

The alert system is in force immediately for federal agencies,
and Ridge
is urging state and local governments to adopt it, too. It
will be subject
to a 45-day comment period, after which it probably will be
revised.

Ridge is not legally empowered to impose the new system on
state and
local governments or on private entities. In a speech to the
National
League of Cities, he implored officials from around the nation
to adopt
it.

"Unless we work together so that we have a seamless strategy
through
the state and down to the local government, I'm afraid we
won't be as
strong as we need to be to confront what I consider to be a
permanent
condition that we as a country need to accept as a fact of
life," Ridge
said.

As threats are assessed, the warning level can be upgraded for
the entire
country or for specific regions and economic sectors — such as
the
nuclear industry, Ridge said. The system is intended to ensure
that local
governments prepare citizens, emergency response teams and the
private sector for various threats, he said.

"We felt it was necessary to come up with a permanent
mechanism to
deal with the permanent possibility — the permanent potential
— of
terrorist attack," Ridge told reporters at a briefing in the
Roosevelt
Room of the White House.

Later, he said the system will provide a common vocabulary for
citizens
and government officials to react to threats.

"It empowers the government and citizens to take actions to
address the
threat. For every level of threat there will be a level of
preparedness,"
Ridge told government officials in a speech a few blocks from
the White
House.

However, Ridge and other U.S. officials conceded the system
does not
tell private citizens how to respond to threats. Instead, the
program was
designed to motivate local governments to develop plans that
will guide
the actions of residents.

"There is no prescription we can write out and give to our
communities,"
Ridge said.

He said the public will be notified of alert level changes in
almost all
cases, with the only exception being when the information
might hinder
police from catching a terrorist suspect.

There are various alert systems currently in place — for
functions
ranging from transportation to the weather — and President
Bush (news
- web sites) ordered a review that will place them under a
single federal
framework. Attorney General John Ashcroft (news - web sites)
will
assign threat conditions in consultation with Ridge.

Ridge said citizens and government officials will welcome a
unified
system, even if it leads to red-level warnings. "I think the
greatest danger
is of the unknown," he said.

The only way Dumbya knows how to increase his power over people is
through the use of fear, so he is exploiting 911 to the fullest extent
possible. The CIA was instructed to allow the attack to occur for
precisely that reason.

I don't think the CIA was instructed to ignore the attack. I mean,
who would have thought up a plan to use box knives to get a jet to
hit a building? That sounds like something one of our mentally ill
relatives would make up. But yeah, the administration is using this
situation to get unlimited spending on military projects and
unprecedented personal/information controls on citizens. Most of my
relatives think it's a good idea to fingerprint everyone, and only a
criminal would object. I woulda kicked some ass, but my momma made
me go outside. >;)

You know, maybe you're right. Maybe it's better to feel everything is
just fine and let's party on with our hollywood friends, like Clinton
did. Then when it hits out of the blue, we can all be in shock again
and suffer horrible damage.

It's alive!! Glad to see they finally let you out of the hole Unk!
What did you do, get a little too drunk and disorderly again?

Regarding the article I posted, I guess it all depends on where you
are standing. You can look at this from the viewpoint of a
freedom-loving American patriot, or, as in your case, a Repug-loving
"Libertarian". But it's much harder to see what's really happening
with your head sunk firmly up Dubya's butt.

Dumbya's picture in the background reflects the fact that this new
system was specifically designed to be moron-proof so that even
King Idiot could understand it. All he has to do when he wakes up
in the morning is decide which color button he wants to press to make
the people dance the way he wants them to on any particular
day.